JESSICA VALE (ELEGANCE FINANCIAL COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED)
THE IMPACT OF GENERATIVE AI (CHATGPT) ON ENGLISH LEARNING OF SECONDARY STUDENTS IN HONG KONG : TEACHING YOUNGER LEARNERS
The arrival of AI-powered tools has been highly appreciated and adopted by a huge number of educators because it has brought forth revolutions in language education and learning. ChatGPT is the most widely used generative AI tool for English learning among students in Hong Kong. This study examines the utilization of ChatGPT as a study assistive tool among secondary students, and the impact on their English learning, namely, vocabulary acquisition, textual understanding and academic performance including reading comprehension, speaking and writing. The study is a combination of qualitative and quantitative research guided by grounded theory. The research study is carried out by using questionnaire distributed to 500 secondary students at the first stage and then conducted focus group discussions at teh second stage. Over 90 percent of the questionnaire was collected, and analysized. The interview was held in different educational settings. The study has two major contributions. The first is its statistical representation of Hong Kong secondary students’ usage of ChatGPT. The second contribution is the finding on the impacts. According to our analysis, the impacts on language learning are of both positive and negative, but the negative impacts are far-reaching and could cause long-term damage to student’s language ability in the long run. To prevent the negative impacts on students’ language learning caused by random usage of ChatGPT, the study suggests students to use generative AI wisely. The study develops a set of AI usage guidance for teachers to communicate with students on how to beneficially use generative AI.
I am a researcher focusing on language learning among young learners especially those with special learning needs. I was trained as a sociological, cultural and linguistic researcher in Japan. I am also interested in utilising various research methods in doing research. Jessica Vale (PhD), Chief Educational and Cultural Researcher Emilyvale278@gmail.com